Creative Duo Exits Hal Riney

Steve Luker and Kevin Jones, the creative team that worked on dot-com accounts such as Webvan and Discovery.com at Publicis & Hal Riney, confirmed last week they are leaving the agency.

Luker and Jones had close to a three-year run at the San Francisco shop. Luker said the pair decided to move on after several accounts on which they worked left the agency. Webvan, for example, closed earlier this year.

“There wasn’t much for us to do, and we didn’t want to sit and wait,” Luker, 37, said. “It seemed like the right time to move on.”

Hired by Riney in April 1999, Luker was named senior vice president, creative director on Hew lett-Packard’s business PC account. He had been working with the agency as a freelancer on HP before joining full-time.

Previously, Luker worked as a creative director at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco, on the Norwegian Cruise Lines, Nike and Isuzu accounts.

Jones, 37, worked on Nike at Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., before joining Riney. He also broke in on HP.

“They’ve done amazing work together,” a source said. “If they’re leaving, it’s probably because they got tired of working on whatever they were doing.”

Among the campaigns for which the pair is known is a push for Internet service Doughnet.com. The 1999 ads featured a teenage boy trying to go through his daily tasks while being chased by “money,” urging him to spend his cash.

A source said the two men will have no difficulties finding freelance gigs—if they decide not to immediately pursue agency jobs.

“They’ll find work, no problem,” a source said. “Those guys are good at what they do.”